I want to believe that the dozen years I have spent speaking, writing and generally communicating, especially through the medium of this column, on the need for quality customer service should confer on me some sort of privilege—a privilege to, at least, be listened to when I talk about such matters.
I believe it should count for something that week in week out, this page has churned out article after article on service quality and service experience. As someone who has gone through the mill, serving at the front line of one of the country’s financial institutions and eventually rising to head an entire department which had customer service as a unit, I can confidently say that I have really seen a lot.
One of the things I have seen happen over the years is a sharp increase in the number of individuals and organisations coming into the industry as experts. Trainers, coaches, consultants, advisers, experts, etc., of all shades and from all persuasions have entered the field over the past few years. These days, there are many individuals out there all with the noblest intentions of helping to improve the quality of customer experience in this country.
There are those whose experience and expertise have been solely earned from within the confines of this country and then, there are also those with international exposure. The latter having seen and experienced the best practices out there are desirous of seeing the same standards applied here in this country.
Customer service is one of the few disciplines that cuts across various sectors and industries. The other disciplines I can think of being accounting and human resource. What this means is that when it comes to those who claim to be experts in the field, their backgrounds can be as varied as the number of different sectors out there.
There are customer service experts from aviation to hospitality all through to zoo keeping. I have seen a number of journalists who have also put themselves out there as not only having a thing or two to say about the subject, but actually believe they are experts in the field. If these individuals believe they are, who are we to say they are not?
As far as I am concerned, if a cabby (or trotro driver, for that matter) comes out to claim to be an expert in customer service, the one should not only be accepted as an expert but even encouraged. Who would better know and understand different calibres of customers like a taxi driver? If we have those whose experience only came from waiting on tables in restaurants for a couple of months saying they are experts, why can we not have commercial drivers also making such claims? As long as those individuals dealt with customers for some considerable period on those jobs, no one can stop them from claiming some sort of expertise in customer service.
I want to believe that all these experts are here with the sole aim of lending their unique experiences and expertise to the betterment of service quality in this country. Although I will not be too surprised if there are some who have come into this space believing there is money to be made and fame to be acquired in this industry. For those seeking fame and fortune, there might be some disappointments in the offing. By and large, I believe this profusion of expertise is all well and good. The job at hand is too big for just a handful of people to do and do well. We would need as many hands on deck as possible.
However, I have a little concern with the current state of affairs. There is a lack of a unified front among the many players who are teaching, training, coaching and consulting in customer service in this country. Individuals (or corporate entities) seems to be doing their own thing in one corner or another. The field is currently characterised by a massive dispersion of expertise, with no form of coordination between the individual players.
Why is this worrying?
For starters, the challenge of poor customer service in this country is too big to be effectively attacked without an effective unified strategy. Even little ants do not attack a large chunk of food haphazardly. These miniscule creatures adopt a cohesive approach, characterised by each and every individual knowing exactly the part of the strategy they are responsible for. Little wonder that in no time, these smart creatures are able to achieve an otherwise impossible task.
Another reason why there is a need for a coming together of those with intentions of helping improve service quality in this country is that the work is such that there is a need for unique expertise in various aspects of service experience. The tendency for a few individuals to brand themselves as being the solution to all the ills in the industry is a recipe for failure. A generalist approach will not be too helpful.
For instance, I look across the industry and see so many areas that no one is looking at. There are so many opportunities that people are not taking advantage of. It seems everyone who claims to be a customer service experts wants to train employees. Meanwhile, training of front line staff is just one of many other ways that the industry can be improved. If we were all trainers, who are the experts who will dedicate their time to undertaking the high quality research needed to improve the industry? Where are those who will published well-researched academic papers that would be used in training the next generation of industry leaders in our educational institutions?
Where are those to organise world-class customer service events such as conferences, seminars, etc.? What about those to help put together service standards for specific industries? There should be industry experts who should be putting together great award schemes that would have the respect of all and sundry. After all these years, we do not have a proper school that runs customer service programs for all levels of the organisational ladder.
Besides all these specific areas, there is also the need to have experts in customer service for specific industries. The thing about this particular call is that it would mean that people who have considerable experience in working at the front line of specific industries can put their expertise and experience to good use.
I know there are many fine individuals who have had a lot of experience doing customer service jobs in banking. We should have customer service experts whose speciality is in the hospitality industry alone. We should have those whose preoccupation would be the quality of service experience in the healthcare industry.
Media customer service experts? Insurance customer service consultants? Transportation service experience experts? Fuel station service experience trainers? I think it would even help if there are experts in public sector customer service alone. Would it not be great to have experts like that in this country?
It is true that the principles guiding good service experience cuts across various industries and sectors. However, the specificities of each experience are so different that there is a need for unique expertise in these areas. Unless there are individuals with considerable experience in multiple sectors, I do not see how we can have one person claiming to be a customer service expert in so many areas.
A third reason why I believe we need a coming together of all experts is so that there can be support for each other and each other’s projects. Evidently, there are some individuals who happen to be more resourced than others. These resources can be both financial and otherwise. Sometimes, all an individual needs is just a phone call from a colleague to someone who matters. It is within a united front that such help can be found easily.
If the call for a united front in the customer service or service experience improvement field leads to the formation of an association or trade body of some sort, I will have no problem with that. Although, that is not my sole reason for putting this article together. My number one concern is in ensuring that there is a concerted and integrated effort when it comes to excising the canker of poor customer service that has plagued this beautiful country for years. Until the time when players in this burgeoning industry will come together and work in tandem for the good of customer service and service experience in the country, the many challenges facing quality service in the country will persist.
For years I have been writing about service experience from a number of perspectives. Over the past decade, I have mainly directed my articles at front line employees and their Management. On the rare occasion, I have sought to direct the attention on to customers, especially with regards to their roles and responsibilities in the creating the right service experience. For the first time in my more than a decade of doing this, I believe the time is just right to turn the light on those of us who claim to be experts on the matter. My plea is for that united approach to tackling the gargantuan task confronting all of us—a mission which can be successfully accomplished if we all pool our resources together. A National Chamber of Service Experience would not be a bad idea. Or?
